In most hardware platforms, the user interacts with the system through a centralized interface. As the interactions become more complex, the centralized interface is usually a screen-based graphical user interface. Thus, as physical components and hardware peripherals are added to the system, the user must interact with the functionality that such peripheral components offer via the centralized interface (e.g., via the screen-based user interface). As such, the user's interaction with the peripheral component is inherently disconnected from the hardware itself. Such inherent disconnect adds mental overhead to the control process and creates confusion for the user. This becomes especially cumbersome when users are required to go through digital interfaces nested in layers of screens, bundled in an application, which itself may be hidden among many different available applications. This added friction limits use opportunities of the peripheral component and reduces the value that the hardware can provide.
As one example, certain mobile devices can permit a hardware module to be connected to the mobile device. However, to enable operation of the hardware module, the user is typically required to: unlock the mobile device; navigate through a menu of various available applications; locate the application associated with the hardware module; select the application and wait for it to load; and then navigate through various interfaces of the application to enable the functionality of the hardware module. Such process reduces both the efficiency and desirability of using the hardware module.
Furthermore, in hardware platforms that include interchangeable modules, the modules must be easily removable and swapped. However, the locking mechanisms that hold components in place must provide enough force so that the modules survive reliability and drop tests. As such, these locking mechanisms are typically purely mechanical in nature. Unfortunately, this means as users remove modules, the software may not have sufficient time to write module data to memory and power down gracefully. As an example, if the user removes a hardware module without “ejecting” it in software first, they are typically provided with an error message.
To solve for such issue, certain systems require the user to indicate that the user wants to eject a module via a screen-based user interface before they remove it. However, as noted above, interacting with the screen-based interface to control a hardware module is inherently disconnected from the physical hardware itself, adding to mental overhead. Therefore, use of screen-based interfaces to control hardware modules can lead to discoverability and usability issues.